In brief: GM meets with victims' lawyer over recall

Kenneth Feinberg, founder and managing partner of Feinberg Rozen LLP, speaks at the John C. Bogle Legacy Forum in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. The forum, named after the founder of The Vanguard Group, looks at Bogle's investing strategies and what they mean in today's economic environment. Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Kenneth Feinberg

Photo: Peter Foley, 976857

The lawyer hired by General Motors to explore compensating victims of cars with a defective ignition switch met Friday with a representative of hundreds of people and their families who say they were affected by accidents involving the vehicles.

It was the first step in a process intended to resolve one of GM's most pressing issues from the recall crisis: how to pay people affected by the faulty switch.

Kenneth Feinberg, an expert in victim compensation who has handled cases like the BP oil spill and the 9/11 fund, met in Washington with a group led by Robert Hilliard, a Texas lawyer, who represents more than 300 clients with wrongful death or personal injury claims. They did not talk about specific cases, and they did not discuss any dollar amounts.